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November 2006
Name suggestions came from far, wide
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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The names came from intowners and out-of-staters, from grandmothers and young fathers. They came in e-mails from Commerce, from California and from China.
Some suggested monikers for Zoo Atlanta’s baby giant panda were melodious reminders of the cub’s local connections — Mei Lan (Atlanta Beauty), for example. Others had a celestial bent — Ming Xing (Bright Star) and Ming Yue (Bright Moon), among others.
Still others underscored the fact that Southern folk can embrace a visitor from China as quickly as they’ll hug a cousin from China Grove. How else to explain “Hai Yall” or “Scarlett O’Beara”?
The name entries came, literally, in the thousands, said Dennis Kelly, president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta.
Now, the zoo has 10 names from which people can choose by voting online at ajc.com. The voting began at 12:01 a.m. Friday and runs through Dec. 10. The winner will be announced in a ceremony Dec. 15.
“We’d be happy with any of the names” selected for the cub, Kelly said.
The female cub, born Sept. 6 to Lun Lun and Yang Yang, will be 100 days old when her name is announced. Her naming will highlight a Chinese tradition in which parents gave a child an official name after he or she had reached 100 days old — and stood a good chance of surviving past infancy. Now, China has adopted that custom in choosing names for its national icon, pandas.
The 100-day ceremony also is an optimistic look to the future, said Jinping Yu, a conservation biologist at Zoo Atlanta. “One hundred days symbolizes 100 years that we wish for a child to live,” he said. “It is a wish for good luck.”
The unnamed panda at Zoo Atlanta has known nothing but good fortune since she emerged, hairless as a boiled egg and not much bigger, nearly three months ago. She’s grown steadily, and the staff that keeps constant track of her development has ticked off milestones in her growth. She should be walking soon.
“She’s doing great,” Kelly said.
The selection process was equal parts democracy and common sense. Anyone with access to a computer could submit a name, but only sensible entries had a chance. “This name,” Jinping noted, “will stay for the rest of her life.”
Eight names were nominated by American outlets; two came from China.
Four Atlanta TV stations, as well as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, solicited online suggestions. People from all over the country and other nations logged on with names that ranged from goofy (“Bling-Bling”) to genteel (“Beautiful Peach”)
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s choice came from online entries made via the panda blog at ajc.com. The AJC’s marketing department reviewed the suggestions and chose one as the newspaper’s official entry.)
The restaurant chain Panda Express, a sponsor, submitted a sixth name.
Zoo Atlanta’s employees and volunteers also were invited to submit names for two finalists. On Nov. 16, behind closed doors, they winnowed their list to two.
Jinping, a Chinese national, translated the eight entries into Mandarin Chinese before they made the final cut. “Beautiful Peach”, for example, became “may-tao.” Another Chinese national, a member of the zoo’s board of directors, also reviewed the submissions.
In China, residents of Chengdu, capital of the Sichuan province of China — birthplace of Lun Lun and Yang Yang — submitted thousands of names. Two emerged from those.
The 10 finalists, Kelly said, passed cultural standards. None is offensive to Eastern or Western tastes. All the names were approved by Zoo Atlanta and Chinese officials, which could have rejected any of them.
Four refer to Atlanta, or the peach that is synonymous with Georgia. Another is a reference to the Yangtze River, China’s largest river. Two more are reminders that the cub is a real head-turner.
“We have one of the cutest and most favored animals on the planet,” Kelly said.
That’s no news to Georgia Supreme Court Justice Leah Sears, a confirmed panda-watcher. Sears viewed the names online Thursday morning and made her ruling: Mei Li, she thinks, is best. It means “beautiful.”
The name, said Sears, simultaneously evokes images of the Far East and the Deep South — a Chinese name, sure, but it has a certain drawl, too.
“She’s a southern American and a Chinese,” Sears said. Her name, the justice said, “reflects her heritage.”
A woman of her convictions, the judge plans to vote early — often, too.
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Get your panda poster in Friday’s AJC!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As part of our annual Christmas gifts to readers, a full-page poster of Atlanta’s favorite baby can be found in Friday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
To purchase additional copies of the newspaper with the panda poster, call the AJC’s customer care line at 404-522-4141.
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Weekly checkup: This kid’s healthy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What can you say about such a healthy little creature?
She’s growing like a weed? She’s as round as a beer keg? She’s furrier than a sack of kittens? All of the above?
Well, yes. Zoo Atlanta’s baby giant panda underwent her weekly examination Thursday morning, the 10th since her birth on Sept. 6. Try as they might, her examiners could find nothing wrong with her. The kid’s healthy.
Dr. Maria Crane, the zoo’s senior veterinarian, woke the cub from a sound slumber. A fine rain fell, November’s final curtain. The cub was 85 days old.
She was docile during the 10-minute checkup, hardly twitching as Crane took note of the vitals:
Length: 23 inches. Zoo workers aren’t sure how much she’s grown since her checkup last week, when her wiggles would have made a worm envious.
Weight: 9.9 pounds. Last week, she weighed 9.1.
Teeth: Her incisors, which zoo staff discovered a week ago, have emerged nicely. Her bamboo-chewing choppers, the premolars, are about to erupt.
She’s “significantly furrier” this week. The cub looks as if she were drawn with chalk and charcoal, her markings as distinct as those on a pair of saddle oxfords.
A final finding: Her “abdominal girth” — that’s science talk for waistline — is nearly 18 inches. She’s chubby, in other words.
“It’s normal conformation for a bear,” Crane said.
That’s more science talk, of course. It means that the cub is in fine health as zoo officials prepare for her naming Dec. 15, when she is 100 days old.
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Some names didn’t make the cut
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Not every name for the new baby panda evoked images of Atlanta, or conjured visions of moons and stars. Some offbeat suggestions Zoo Atlanta received from internet bloggers:
Black-Eyed Pea
Hai Yall
Scarlett O’Beara
Bling Bling
Sonny Sonny
Shirley Shirley
Hip-Hop
Willie B
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Name that panda: Zoo announces nominees
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sorry, “Bling Bling” did not make the final cut. Nor did any of the other tongue-in-cheek names suggested for the new panda cub by internet bloggers in recent weeks.
Zoo Atlanta announced the 10 finalist names for Lun Lun’s nearly 3-month-old baby on Thursday, and all have a traditional Chinese ring to them. Their English translations emphasize tranquility, simplicity and harmony. A few reflect her Georgia birthplace.
The cub’s permanent name will be chosen through public voting on ajc.com, beginning 12:01 a.m. Friday and ending Dec. 10. The winning name will be announced Dec. 15 in a ceremony at Zoo Atlanta.
The submissions — listed here in no particular order (with pronunciation, English translation and sponsoring organization) — had to be approved by Zoo Atlanta staff and Chinese officials; China owns the panda cub and its parents, Lun Lun and Yang Yang.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s choice was selected from entries via our pandablog at ajc.com (Nov. 14-16). All suggestions were reviewed by the AJC marketing department. One name was chosen as the newspaper’s official entry.
The contenders:
Xiao Tao (shao-tao). “Little Peach.” Panda Express.
Mei Tao (may-tao). “Beautiful Peach.” WGCL-TV. CBS.
Mei Lan (may-lan). “Atlanta Beauty.” WSB-TV. ABC.
Mei Li (may-lee). “Beautiful.” WAGA-TV. Fox.
Ming Xing (ming-shing). “Bright Star.” WXIA-TV. NBC.
Ping Bao (ping-bao). “Peacefulness and Precious Treasure.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cheng Ya (cheng-ya). “Pretty Atlanta Girl From Chengdu.” Zoo Atlanta.
Ming Yue (ming-yuu). “Bright Moon.” Zoo Atlanta.
Tai Ji (tai-chi). “Tai-Chi, philosophical foundation of Taoism.” Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
Chang Jiang (chung-jung). “Yangtze River.” Chengdu.
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Zoo’s panda cam hours cut back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Panda lovers, you’re just going to have to grimace and bear the change. Zoo Atlanta’s Panda Cam is no longer 24/7.
The camera that had afforded panda fans an unblinking, unfailing glimpse into the lives of giant panda Lun Lun and her unnamed cub now is operating on banker’s hours — and East Coast hours, at that.
The camera now operates only Monday-Friday, between the hours of 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
If you’ve been logging on late night or during the weekend to see the baby panda and her mom, forget it. Zoo Atlanta’s Web site won’t have any live images.
Or, if you like peeking at the duo during the work week, but live in Birmingham — that’s in the Central Time Zone, an hour behind Atlanta — you’d better get in the habit of logging on between the hours of 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
If you live in LA, three time zones away? Set the coffee maker for 7 a.m.
Tel Aviv? London? Do the math and act accordingly.
Earthlink is now sponsoring the camera, which had been underwritten by CNN.com until the zoo could find a permanent sponsor.
“Earthlink is doing a phenomenal job and a huge favor to Zoo Atlanta” by taking over the camera’s costs, said zoo spokeswoman Susan Elliott.
Earthlink was happy to assume the sponsorship, said Jerry Grasso, a spokesman for the company. He declined to say what the sponsorship cost.
“The panda is big news,” he said.
It is. Zoo Atlanta reports that the Panda Cam has averaged 50,000 visits daily. Such popularity is not cheap, Elliott said. Giving online viewers unlimited access to the mother and cub racked up staff costs: the cam was manned around the clock.
The increased use of bandwidth to provide access at all hours also added up, said Elliott, who declined to say what the camera had cost.
The unlimited hours came to an end Wednesday, and they aren’t likely to come back, Elliott said.
“It all boils down to costs,” she said.
The news made some panda fans boil — Colleen Horan of Lansing, Mich., for one, who routinely logs on to see the duo. She calls the unnamed cub “Miss Wiggles”.
“I was very disappointed, extremely disappointed” to learn that the hours had been cut back, said Horan, 44, who liked to log on at night to check on the cub.
Panda fan Dana Meyer of Martinsburg, W.Va., wants a constant camera on the baby panda so she can keep close tabs on the cub’s progress.
“She’s growing so fast,” said Meyer, who communicates with other cub-lovers online. “We’ve all been drawn in by the video of this panda cub. “We’ve watched her since birth.”
She can still watch, of course. Meyer can still scratch that panda itch when she gets it, provided that itch occurs during the work week, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. That’s East Coast time.
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Watch those fingers, this cub’s got nippers!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Note to the people who give Zoo Atlanta’s baby giant panda her weekly checkups: Watch your fingers.
She’s got teeth now.
In related developments, the zoo is making available a limited number of tickets for people who want to witness the cub-naming Dec. 15.
The tickets, which costs $5 on top of zoo admission price, will allow people to watch a live video feed of the ceremony, taking place at 10 a.m. at the zoo. About 250 ticket-holders will be given seats at the zoo’s Coca-Cola World Studio to watch.
Selecting the cub’s name will be an exercise in democracy; people will get to vote for their favorite from among 10. The voting will take place Dec. 1-10 here at ajc.com.
The 10 names will have been submitted by zoo staff, media organizations, sponsors and residents of Sichuan province in China, the panda’s homeland. They will have the approval of zoo staff and officials at the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding in China.
The cub will be 100 days old when she is given a name, which reflects a Chinese tradition. When a panda cub reaches that milestone, it is likely to survive.
And what of the cub’s parents? Parenthood has not had much of an impact on Yang Yang, the cub’s father. He’s been on display constantly since the cub’s birth. Lun Lun has been with the youngster nearly constantly, but has now returned for limited public viewing.
She’s still segregated from Yang Yang, zoo officials said, but regularly steps out to eat before returning to her cub, which has not been put on display.
For more information about the pandas, or to get a ticket, log on to www.zooatlanta.org.
OK, they’re baby teeth, two incisors in the upper jaw that zoo employees discovered during the unnamed cub’s regular checkup Wednesday morning. But they are, after all, in a bear’s mouth.
Dr. Maria Crane, Zoo Atlanta’s senior veterinarian, made the discovery during the checkup, normally held on Thursdays but moved to Wednesday this week for Thanksgiving. She carefully inserted a determined index finger into the little panda’s mouth. The cub, a furry ball of reluctance, grudgingly complied.
“You’ve got some teeth today,” Crane said.
She got more than that in the checkup, her ninth. Crane gave the cub her second canine distemper shot. The youngster bore it with bruin-like stoicism. She didn’t peep.
Here are some more findings:
• The panda, born Sept. 6, has added about another pound in the last six days. She’s now 9.1 pounds. (By comparison, her mama, Lun Lun, weighs about 240.)
• Her vision and hearing are getting better all the time. She submitted to an ear exam, her head turned sideways, her eyes watching everybody watching her.
• Her front legs, already strong, are getting stronger. She popped up on them like an athlete preparing to do push-ups. Her back legs are still a little shaky.
• Her voice is growing, too. She shared her sentiments several times during the examination — “vocalization,” Crane called it. You could safely call it a squawk.
• Her length? That’s a mystery. Last week, the zoo reported that she stretched 22.4 inches from one end to the other. This week, the measurement from nose to tail was nearly an inch shorter: 21.6 inches.
• No, the baby panda has not shrunk, said Susan Elliott, a spokeswoman for the zoo. “Securing more accurate measurements may be more difficult” now, Elliott said.
• Translation: The cub is stronger, wiggling more than ever.
• And this: She’s got teeth now.
She growls! She stands! She charms!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Panda fans, check this out. In the past week, that little-girl giant panda at Zoo Atlanta has:
• Grown nearly 1.5 inches
• Gained about three-quarters of a pound
• Developed strength in her front legs.
Oh, and this: She’s found her voice.
Snarf! The unnamed youngster barked once, and fixed a beady stare at the women who held a tape across her nose, measuring the child’s length from nose to tail. The panda is now 22.44 inches long. Last week, she measured 21 inches.
Haff! She made a little bear cough as her handlers hefted her on a scales. The numbers glowed red — 3.66 kilos. (For you non-scientists, that’s about 8.1 pounds.) Her weight gain is proof that her mama, Lun Lun, is feeding that child right.
Snarf! The panda stood up on front legs as sturdy as posts. She turned her fuzzy head to the right, to the left. She looked at the ceiling, then at her feet. A tough kid.
Dr. Maria Crane, who has been conducting weekly exams since the panda’s birth Sept. 6 — Thursday’s checkup was the eighth for doctor and patient — is pleased with the panda’s progress. The zoo’s senior veterinarian, Crane makes the regular exams to chart the infant’s progress, watch her vitals and add Zoo Atlanta’s findings to a growing wealth of knowledge about the bears.
She also likes looking at her young charge, who at 71 days old has more hair than a wig shop. “She’s definitely getting stronger,” said Crane.
The panda is still a little shaky on her back legs. Her teeth, too, are still under the gums, but threatening to come out at any moment.
And when those teeth come out? Lun Lun will be nursing her child for another 10 months or so.
If you don’t understand the significance of that, go check with a nursing mom.
Get ready to name the new panda
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Panda fans, start your laptops.
The public will choose the name for Zoo Atlanta’s new Giant Panda cub through an online poll Dec. 1-10 on ajc.com, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution web site.
Voters will choose from 10 names submitted by zoo staff, media organizations, sponsors and residents of Sichuan province in China, the panda’s native homeland.
All 10 potential names for the female cub will be pre-approved for submission by Zoo Atlanta staff and officials at the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding in China. Chengdu is the birthplace of Lun Lun and Yang Yang, the cub’s parents.
The names will be listed in English with their Chinese translations, Zoo spokeswoman Susan Elliott said. The list of candidates will be announced in late November by zoo officials.
Five local media companies — affiliates of the four major TV networks and The Atlanta-Journal Constitution — will submit one name each. Zoo sponsor Panda Express will also nominate a name. Two names each will be offered by zoo staff and residents of Sichuan province. A contest already is underway in Chengdu to choose those names.
Elliott said the Atlanta media companies were invited to participate because of their ongoing support of the zoo. “They didn’t give us a dime” to be included in the naming process, she said.
The winning name will be announced during a 100 Day Naming Celebration at Zoo Atlanta on Friday, Dec. 15, at 10 a.m. The celebration is a tradition in many parts of China. For panda cubs the one-hundredth day of life is a significant milestone because of the high infant-mortality rate in the species.
The cub born at Zoo Atlanta on Sept. 6, currently weighing 7.2 pounds, is the only giant panda to be born outside of China in 2006. It is the result of breeding recommendations from a Species Survival Plan for giant pandas administered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and a breeding plan administered by the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens and the State Forestry Administration of China.
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Panda cub gets a shot
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
John Spink/AJC
Zoo Atlanta's Giant Panda cub got its first vaccination Thursday from Chinese colleague Xie Yi (left), veterinary tech Brendan Aylesworth (center) and Dr. Maria Crane.
She wasn’t rewarded with a lollipop, but Zoo Atlanta’s Giant Panda cub was an ideal patient Thursday morning while receiving her first vaccination shot, for canine distemper.
Otherwise, she was a typically noisy and active baby, issuing several loud squawks and sudden lurches as she becomes more sensitive to sound and surroundings.
“Visually she’s a little more aware,” zoo vet Maria Crane said, shortly after the 8:15 a.m. checkup. “It looked like movement [in the room] was startling her a little bit. She’s also becoming more sensitive to sound. As I checked her ears, the ear canal opening was a little bit larger. She is a lot more active and she has gained a lot more strength in her front legs.”
The cub now weighs 7.2 pounds, a gain of one pound from last week, and measured 21 inches from nose to tip of tail.
The little panda also had its temperature taken, rectally, and the result was normal: 36.5 degrees Celsius.
The cub’s increased size and activity mean zoo staffers could not take their hands off the animal for its usual “hands free” photo during the exam.
“I really don’t like to not be able to keep them from rolling off the table and injuring themselves,” Crane said. “Touch sometimes makes the animals feel more secure, because she is used to her mother holding her. She seemed to calm down as long as I kept a hand on her back or head.”
Panda loves Tabasco sauce, you know
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Add this bit of information to your knowledge of all things panda: Some love hot sauce.
Yang Yang, Zoo Atlanta’s male giant panda, loves to sniff the stuff. He rolls in it. He spreads it on his fur like some folks slather it on their frijoles negros.
Zoo staff who monitor his antics call this sort of behavior “self-anointing.”
Mary Richardson of the Louisiana-based McIlhenny Co., who recently sent the panda a gallon of Tabasco, calls it …
But we’re putting the sauce before the course.
Kenn Harwood, one of the zoo’s go-to guys in the care of large mammals, is credited with discovering the connection between a pepper sauce made in Louisiana and a bruin made in China. He had a bottle of McIlhenny’s Tabasco — hot stuff, capable of removing crud from a penny. In the interest of science, Harwood decided to see what Lun Lun and Yang Yang would do with it.
Lun Lun apparently could take it or leave it. Yang Yang? He snuffled at it greedily, big nose quivering. Harwood realized the panda was replicating the self-anointing behavior of his peers in the wild — that is, rolling around in a strange scent. Harwood periodically gives Yang Yang his Tabasco fix, mixing the sauce in a piece of wool and letting the big boy have at it.
Hot news in Louisiana
This scientific discovery remained as obscure as one of the moons of Mars until September, a few days after Lun Lun gave birth to a baby girl. A biography of the parents that appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that the old man liked the smell of Tabasco. Zoo Atlanta also posted an item on its Web site underscoring the papa panda’s weakness for hot sauce.
News like that couldn’t be squelched. It reached a Louisianian whose family traces its fortune to a fellow named Edmund McIlhenny, who began bottling a certain brand of liquid fire not long after the Civil War.
Word reached the marketing department at McIlhenny Co. that a guy in Atlanta liked the stuff so much he spread it on himself. Employees at the Avery Island., La., plant moved fast.
They found a gallon bottle of the sauce and a box to put it in. They contacted United Parcel Service and told the company to come, quick: An Atlantan was burning for some McIlhenny sauce.
Label with personal touch
Then, before the UPS guy drove away, the company turned to Richardson, who periodically makes special labels for special customers.
“For Yang Yang,” she wrote, “to help spice up all that bamboo.”
“I’ve done a lot of labels,” said Richardson, who has worked at the company 18 years, “but never for a panda — or any other animal.”
A Panda hot for Tabasco? Karen Baragona, the World Wildlife Federation’s panda expert, laughed.
“Maybe it smells like a female?” she asked.
Maybe so. Lun Lun is busy these days with her cub, and a guy needs some sort of distraction.
The distraction arrived last week. At last report, Yang Yang was grinning like a panda in hot sauce.
Snerk! Panda cub fit as a fiddle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She’s gained weight. Her teeth are round little nubs. Her nails are as sharp as roof tacks.
She is, in other words, in great shape.
The baby giant panda at Zoo Atlanta underwent her weekly exam Thursday morning. It’s a routine procedure designed to monitor the cub’s development — a chance, too, to wow her handlers. Their assessment? The child is longer, stronger, more prone to let people know what she’s thinking.
“Snerk!” The 57-day-old baby grunted once and fixed eyes as bright as black marbles on her handlers, three energetic young women who came to poke and probe. She’d just been removed from the heated space she shares with her mom, Lun Lun, and looked vaguely irritated.
Maria Crane, the zoo’s chief veterinarian, gently thrust a glove-clad index finger in the little creature’s mouth. White jaws clamped shut, a furry vise. The latex snapped softly as Crane removed her finger.
“She has teeth,” Crane announced.
But that’s not all. The baby has grown more than an inch; from soft little nose to furry little tail, she now stretches 19.5 inches. She’s put on about a half-pound in the last seven days, making the scales groan at 6 pounds. The ears? Last week, they were beginning to stand erect. This week, they were still rising, and sat atop her head like surprised wooly-worms.
She is doing just what a baby panda should be doing after less than two months on this earth. She’s eating, sleeping, hanging close to mama, and making the occasional editorial comment:
“Snerk!”
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